


Green (With Very Little Evil)

by oneatatime



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Female Tommy, Multi, Post Movie, Team Bonding, is that a chunk of banana in your hair or are you just- no it's a chunk of banana in your hair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-05-14 16:12:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19276825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oneatatime/pseuds/oneatatime
Summary: “How about we tell you some stories?” Kim suggested.





	Green (With Very Little Evil)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [authenticaussie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/authenticaussie/gifts).



“You’re all so comfortable with each other,” Tommy said wistfully, twirling her spoon around in her glass. It went _tink tink tink_ against the side of the ring she had on her index finger. It was a nice ring. Some intricate little design like a chessboard in black and white, but Tommy hadn’t held still long enough for Kim to get a good look.

They were in Jason's basement. His mom was really nice, and his dad was beginning to unfreeze around them, too. Pearl was a great sister, as well. Very patient with Kim learning new signs and trying them out on her. The look of delighted shock on her face the first time Kim had successfully signed 'do you want to borrow this coat sometime' had been beautiful. The basement was good, a little bit of mess, enough that it felt lived in. Old magazines in the corner, an old card table that was sturdy enough for snacks and for studying (as long as they only put a couple textbooks on it). There was even a foldup games table. She didn't like being places that felt sterile. 

“You'll get comfortable too.” Trini smiled at Tommy, and pushed a tiny origami dinosaur across the old card table at her. It was green. Long tail. “These guys have a way of being obnoxiously friendly. Not like me, of course. I’m classy and polite.”

The corners of Tommy’s mouth turned up just a little, and Kim reached out to cover Tommy’s free hand with hers. It was good to see her smile. Well, almost smile. Tommy’s fingers twitched briefly under Kim’s, but she didn’t protest.

Billy hauled another spoonful of his own sundae out of his glass, and waggled the spoon in her direction, in time with nodding his head. A liquid curl of chocolate began to wend its way off the end of the spoon. He squawked, and quickly stuck his face under it. Jason shook his head in pretend horror, and pushed the end of his own sundae in front of Billy, who said what Kim thought was probably ‘thank you’, in an excited chocolatey mumble.

“You’re all so close. I don’t think there’s much room.” An attempt at a laugh, like that was a joke, instead of something she was obviously anxious about. “And, ah, you’re all dating each other?”

Tommy’s voice was smaller than usual. Not that they’d talked to her all that much to know, outside of detention, and they never got much of a chance in detention. She hadn’t come to training yet, but she was a good solo fighter already and they were working on her. Jason said give her time.

She drew one leg up underneath her. It was her first time there, and it showed. She kept messing with her hair, and fidgeting with the bandage around her wrist that Zack had applied, though now at least she had a tiny origami dinosaur to play with, too. Kim’s knee was better now that Trini had wrapped it for her. Jason had a matching bandage on his left wrist, and Zack was currently drawing a solar system on it with Sharpie.

It wasn’t good – Putty fights were never all that great, or fun – but it was kind of a silv- green lining that needing first aid had been an excuse to get Tommy to hang with them. Maybe the pain was helping take her defences down a little. She responded quickly enough to attacks. But she was standoffish. It’d only been a week since she’d moved to Angel Grove with her mom, and they didn’t know much about her past. So it was understandable, but now Kim was beginning to see just how much of that was protective camouflage over a pretty big well of shyness.

Kim understood needing to present a particular image.

(Well. Putty fights could actually be amazing. Kim grinned to herself briefly, thinking about how fiercely good it felt to _move_ , to know exactly what her body could do, to adapt and resist and hit and work in tandem with the others.)

Billy got up, wandering around with his sundae. “We’re not all dating each other,” he said mildly from the other side of the room. Jason ambled after him, and Zack dropped into his place at the table with one calf drawn up on the other knee. He was dressed in a black tee and black jeans, but the totally dramatic look he was probably going for was messed up by the sunflower drawn on one cheek and the chunk of banana stuck in his hair.

Kim leaned over and tugged the banana out. He made an ‘oh, that’s where that went’ face. She dropped it back into his sundae glass, and noted the way Tommy’s eyes creased. It was nice. Kim wanted to see her relax more.

“I’m dating Jason, so’s Billy,” Zack said comfortably. “Kim and Trini are dating, I think?”

Trini gave him finger guns.

“…but it kind of doesn’t matter,” Zack continued.

Jason had one of Billy’s geography textbooks under one arm. He looked up from paging through another and said mildly, “Hey.”

Billy laughed. “No, it doesn’t matter what you call it, y’know? We’re all together.”

"So you all love each other," Tommy said, and there were general nods and mms and grunts of agreement. 

Kim gave her a measuring look, taking in the vulnerability in her eyes. The way she kept rubbing the sides of her bandage, like it was aching like hell under there. Knowing they all loved each other was good, but it didn't help Tommy know how she could find her way in to be part of them. 

“How about we tell you some stories?” Kim suggested.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Um.”

Billy gave Jason an anxious look, which was hard to figure out given Billy’s face was about an inch from Jason’s and so it was kind of difficult to focus. He could tell Billy was extra anxious, though. He made eye contact for longer.

Jason’s ribs vaguely ached from Billy hitting him at stomach height and bearing him down below the back of the couch. He went back over the past thirty seconds in his head. A question, a thunk, and a non-reply.

Fairly typical day, really.

Another ballistic muffin embedded itself into the wall. This one was blueberry. The one next to it had chunks of rock hard kiwi fruit, which was only barely visible past the side of Billy’s neck. As Jason watched, a chunk fell out and struck Billy on the shoulder, making him wince.

“I’m assuming that the answer to my question is that my hairdryer sacrificed itself to build that.”

Jason couldn’t say he was delighted about this, exactly. He was lying on the floor with a guy on top of him – yeah, so one of his best friends, and he didn’t mind the contact in itself – but also with all kinds of lint and fluff sticking to his wet hair, and he was pretty sure there was some kind of rabid dust bunny gnawing on his toe. But it was kind of hilarious.

He didn’t want to upset the guy. Not because Billy couldn’t take it, but because he cared about Billy, who was so obviously worried about his reaction already.

The glummest of nods.

“Is this because I wasn’t here?” Jason wondered, grinning. “But if I’m ninety percent of your impulse control, and you’re ninety percent of my impulse control, then who’s flying the plane?”

“Huh?”

“I’m not mad,” Jason clarified, and he felt Billy relax on top of him. “I mean, I want my hairdryer back, and I don’t really need Mom seeing the wall like this. But I’m not mad. This is a neat idea and we can clean it up together.”

He made the _it’s okay_ sign, like he and his little sister Pearl and Billy had all worked on together, and Billy signed back _good._

* * *

“You don’t have to be okay,” Jason said softly, seriously. “It’s a lot of responsibility, saving the world and taking care of your mom.”

Zack squirmed. “Yeah, I – I know. But we’ve all got difficult things. Just ‘cos you’re our leerless feeder – uh, fearless leader – doesn’t mean that you’ve got endless time to sit with me.”

“Nah, I don’t think you do know,” Jason told him. “We all help each other, that’s how it works.”

“Is Zack upset?” Alpha boomed anxiously, climbing the little rock hill up to where Jason knelt next to him.

Jason lied immediately and cheerfully. “Nope. But he could use a hug.”

Alpha stopped for a moment. “What could he use it for? – oh, never mind.”

He wrapped his little metal arms around Zack, and Jason did the same with his super muscly human arms, and he felt Zack tense… and then relax into both of them.

* * *

“People like you have no imagination.”

“Oh, I have lots of imagination, Princess,” Trini said vengefully. She continued to stalk Kim, herding her towards Kim’s horrible Pepto-Bismol bed, then with a triumphant yelp (Trini) and another triumphant yelp (Kim – wait, what?) Trini landed on top of her.

“You’re gonna get punished good for what you did to Captain Duckface.”

“He wanted to kiss Pooky! You know he did!”

“Pink lipstick is not his colour!”

* * *

It wasn’t that Billy hated touch. He was pretty good at it sometimes, and it sure could be comforting. But there were times when he knew it wasn’t his thing, and – the most amazing part – he knew it was okay. They all had their issues, and while he was the only one of ‘em on the spectrum, they were all considerate of each other. He didn’t stand out. He wasn’t alone. .

Trini’d even yelled at him – in a polite, worried way – one time when he’d gotten all twitchy, sitting with her too close to him. They were watching while Kim and Zack played a weird kind of ping pong with a frying pan and a rolled up copy of _Them Weekly_. She didn’t _want_ him to get twitchy, she wanted him to shift away or tell her no or whatever before. And yeah, the twitchier he got, the harder it was to act on it. But she seemed to actually get that and she said she’d watch out for it, too. That was pretty awesome.

So he didn’t feel guilty at all when he got up from sitting with Jason in the big beanbag. Jase kept making little sad sounds and shifting around like he wanted to rest his head on Billy’s shoulder. Making it really hard for Billy to concentrate on the movie. But he wasn’t mad about it, just the same as he didn’t feel guilty.

He stroked Jason’s hair a couple times and said, “I’ll get help.”

“Crap. I’m okay, sorry-“

Billy smiled. “Nah, you’re not okay, and it’s fine, and you’re not bothering me. But me and touching is like you and advanced trig. Sometimes you gotta accept that you can’t do it all by yourself.”

He ambled over to the couch. Trini sat on the old patchy leather, leaning forward, wearing one of Kim’s pink Muppets shirts. Zack sat in front of her, cross legged on a cushion, while they watched _Bill and Ted._ There were six tiny braids in Zack’s hair, with yellow hairbands on the end. Trini looked up at him, her fingers moving intricately as she worked on the seventh.

“You need him?”

“Yeah, Jason needs his other boyfriend. Do I have your permission?” Billy asked seriously.

She grinned, rolling a hairband off her finger and onto the end of the braid. She twisted it once, twice. “I guess.”

Zack said through a mouthful of popcorn. “What about my permission? Don’t I count?”

“Nope,” Trini said cheerfully.

“I don’t want to annoy you guys when you’re enjoying the movie. I get a say, right?”

“ _Nope,_ ” Trini, Billy, and Zack chorused together, along with Kim as she brought in another bowl of popcorn. This was something Billy loved about them all. When Jason was being a self-sacrificing dumbass they always joined together to tell him no.

Zack stood up, and Kim nodded in appreciation. “Damn, you do good work,” she told Trini, dropping a kiss on the top of her head. “You’re the best plaiter I’ve seen.”

Zack squeaked, halfway to Jason. “You’re not gonna put food on Trini, right?” he pleaded.

“’Plaiter’,” Kim said, dropping down next to Trini. She offered Billy the bowl, and he took a handful. “Meaning ‘one who plaits’. I don’t mean she’s actually a- oh, never mind. Food goes in Trini, not on Trini.”

She nodded. “Damn straight.”

Billy grinned, and sat on the floor on Trini’s other side. Close enough to be part of the group, far enough that he didn’t have to get touched if he didn’t want it.

He looked over.

Jason had his arms wrapped around Zack. Jason’s head was on Zack’s shoulder. Zack popped a couple pieces of popcorn into Jason’s mouth.

They both looked happy. Billy was happy, too.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tommy was still messing with her hair as she examined the map on the wall. There were Sharpies on the little rack underneath it. Someone’d added a carrot to Iceland for some reason, and made Italy into a high heeled boot.

She ever would’ve expected carrots or boots on the wall, that first night, after the coin landed practically _on_ her in the tiniest meteorite in existence, and then an hour later Jason appeared, panting like he’d been running flat out.

Standing next to her, Kim leaned over and bumped hips with her. Kim was incredibly pretty, dressed in a pink Muppets tank and jeans, but the prettiest thing about her was the warmth in her eyes. “You’ll have stories with us, too. And you should tell us some of yours.”

Trini waved a brush at her, and she took her courage in both hands. Funny. Much easier to divebomb a Putty and trust that she wouldn’t snap her neck, than to ask one of them for help.

“It okay if I-“

“Would you mind-“

They said simultaneously, and then Tommy relaxed into a grin. Her hair was past her shoulders, and annoying the crap out of her because she’d left it loose this morning and it wasn’t a loose hair day. It was really cool to see that Trini had been itching to mess with it. Trini moved around behind her, and Tommy managed not to tense up.

That… that in itself was pretty cool. She was getting better at working with them in battles, ever since the green Power Coin had landed near her house in a hunk of space rock. Jason had told her about Rita, and that explained some of the images in her head sometimes, but she didn’t like gold. So. She’d keep fighting those images, and now she had – friends – to fight them with.

She had friends to fight lots of things with.

It was gonna be difficult to get used to them outside of morphing, but she could do it.

Because they weren’t a ‘them’ any more.

“Uh, let’s see… I grew up in Arkansas, my cat’s name is Mittens von Doom, and it’s been me and mom for as long as I can remember…”

They were an ‘us’.


End file.
